There are a bunch of tips and tricks about FreeBSD setup for Thinkpad X220 in this little note. I wrote it to not forget non-obvious actions, wchich should be done after system installation. Used Thinkpad came from 2011 year — from that times, when it used decent design from IBM with blue Enter and 7-row keyboard.

This post based on information from the next pages:

Show ~ for current directory path in bash prompt

In FreeBSD all users’ home catalogs placed in /usr/home/. The /home/ is just a symbolic link to /usr/home/. So, thats why in command prompt \w will be substituted to /usr/home/catalog_name, not to ~/catalog_name.

To fix that you need to set path to home catalog directly to /usr/home/user_catalog, not to /home/user_catalog. Use sudo chsh username for this.

Minimal set of groups

wheel
for sudo

video
grants access to /dev/dri/card*

webcamd
grants access to web-camera.

Power control

/etc/rc.conf settings:

powerd_enable="YES"
powerd_flags="-a hiadaptive -b adaptive -M 2000"
performance_cx_lowest="Cmax"
economy_cx_lowest="Cmax"

/boot/loader.conf settings:

cpufreq_load="YES"
kern.hz=100

Thanks to these settings — notebook will become slowly but more energy-saving.

Sound

Need to load snd_hda module on system startup. Add this to /boot/loader.conf:

snd_hda_load="YES"

To switch between speakers and earphone on the fly — add these lines to /boot/device.hints:

hint.hdaa.0.nid20.config="as=1 seq=0 device=Speaker"
hint.hdaa.0.nid21.config="as=1 seq=15 device=Headphones"

Brightness control

Add these lines to /boot/loader.conf:

acpi_ibm_load="YES"
acpi_video_load="YES"

First line loads kernel module to operate with Thinkpad peripherals — multimedia-keys, brightness-control keys, etc. Second line loads kernel module to control screen brightness via sysctl (use hw.acpi.video.lcd0.brightness setup).

Multimedia keys

First, module acpi_ibm should be already loaded in system.

The next strings should be added to /etc/devd.conf, with them devd could process Fn+Fkey keypresses and send it to our script:

notify 10 {
    match "system" "ACPI";
    match "subsystem" "IBM";
    action "/etc/acpi_thinkpad.sh $notify";
};

Script content (incomplete):

#!/bin/sh

ACPI_EVENT="$1"

case "$ACPI_EVENT" in
    '0x04')
        /usr/sbin/zzz
        ;;
esac

To watch key scan-codes just stop devd and launch it from root with -d argument.

Touchpad and trackpoint

First, enable Synaptics touchpad and trackpoint support in /boot/loader.conf:

hw.psm.synaptics_support=1
hw.psm.trackpoint_support=1

Package xf86-input-synaptics should be replaced with xf86-input-evdev. With these changes — touchpad, trackpoint and middle mouse button above of touchpad will be working. Also, scrolling with middle button and trackpoint will work.

I’d like sensitive trackpoint — so I add the next lines to /etc/systcl.conf:

hw.psm.trackpoint.sensitivity=255
hw.psm.trackpoint.upper_plateau=125

Web-camera

Make next changes in next files:

/boot/loader.conf

cuse_load="YES"

/etc/rc.conf

webcamd_enable="YES"

/etc/sysctl.conf

kern.evdev.rcpt_mask=12

After that add user to webcamd group:

sudo pw groupmod webcamd -m <username>

Sleep

First, the module acpi_ibm should be loaded:

Then, we can go to sleep mode via acpiconf -s 3 command. Or via zzz command.

Enable drm-kmod

Install the package graphics/drm-kmod. After, enable module i915kms.ko — add next line to /etc/rc.conf:

kld_list="${kld_list} /boot/modules/i915kms.ko"

Wi-Fi

Add next lines to /boot/loader.conf:

if_iwn_load="YES"
wlan_wep_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"

And these lines to /etc/rc.conf (select proper country code in last line):

wlans_iwn0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP powersave"
create_args_wlan0="country RU regdomain NONE"

Install package wpa_supplicant to operate with Wi-Fi networks from user mode. And add next lines to the start of /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=2
fast_reauth=1

Miscellaneous

You can add next lines to /boot/loader.conf:

autoboot_delay="2"
kern.maxproc="100000"
kern.ipc.shmseg="1024"
kern.ipc.shmmni="1024"
cpuctl_load="YES"
coretemp_load="YES"
libiconv_load="YES"
libmchain_load="YES"
cd9660_iconv_load="YES"
msdosfs_iconv_load="YES"

These lines enable support of temperature sensors in system, will reduce delay to two seconds before the system boots and so on.

To load DHCP client in background on system startup and reduce system boot time — add next line to /etc/rc.conf:

background_dhclient="YES"

To mount filesystems without root privileges, to disable system beeper and so on — add next lines to /etc/sysctl.conf:

vfs.read_max=128
vfs.usermount=1
hw.syscons.bell=0
kern.vt.enable_bell=0

2024-04-28 update

Now, I am using coreboot instead of BIOS on my Thinkpad. Also, I soldered expansion board AGAN X230 to my motherboard to use nice and shiny 2K-display. As operation system I use FreeBSD 14.0. Thats why I wrote this update:

Working sleep mode (S3)

Out of the box, the sleep mode is working incorrectly. Command sudo zzz nice switches laptop to sleep mode. But, after wakeup I can see screen with i3wm for seconds and after that system behaves like I have entered sudo shutdown -h now command. But I didn’t enter it either!

After digging on FreeBSD forum, I found a topic, where a man with HP laptop describing his issues with non-working sleep mode. Suddenly, but advice from this topic helped me a lot.

There are should be the next lines in /etc/sysctl.conf:

hw.pci.do_power_suspend=0
hw.pci.do_power_nodriver=1

And next in /boot/loader.conf:

hint.p4tcc.0.disabled="1"
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled="1"

After restart, sleep mode finally works well as before! Without strange shutdown after wake up.

To enable sleeping after closing the lid, I’ve added one more line to /etc/sysctl.conf:

hw.acpi.lid_switch_state=S3

Output boot-log to «secondary» 2K-display

Coreboot with SeaBIOS payload FreeBSD bootloader don’t works very well together. If you try to boot FreeBSD on the machine with coreboot, you’ll see a thin line of something like video interference on the top of the screen.

To fix that, you should blindly press Esc in the bootloader. After that, still blindly enter command vbe on and press Enter. Now, bootloader switch the video mode and it’s interface will be displayed on the screen.

Boot to the system with the boot command and add next lines to /boot/loader.conf:

hw.vga.textmode="0"
kern.vty=vt
i915kms_load="YES"
vbe_max_resolution=2560x1440

Reduce count of messages from system when booting

Add to /boot/loader.conf:

boot_mute="YES"

To /etc/rc.conf:

rc_startmsgs="NO"

Powersaving for videocard

Add next lines to /boot/loader.conf:

drm.i915.enable_rc6="7"
drm.i915.semaphores="1"
drm.i915.intel_iommu_enabled="1"

Slow internet with Intel 8260 WiFi card

I’m using Intel 8260 WiFi-card in my laptop now. With default settings, my Internet connection is very low (if use 1/4 of maximal power on WiFi-router and go away from it’s antennas).

After reading of FreeBSD forum I’ve found what it can be easily solved. Just add mode 11g to line with ifconfig_wlan0= in /etc/rc.conf.

Miscellaneous (2)

To decrease desktop latency under the high load, add next lines to /etc/sysctl.conf:

kern.sched.preempt_thresh=224

Settings for network stack performance in /boot/loader.conf:

net.link.ifqmaxlen="2048"
cc_htcp_load="YES"